Valorization of the clay material of the Province of Nador in Civil Engineering

The aim of this work is to contribute to the improvement of earth construction and more particularly brick construction in the absence of precise standards governing the thermo-physical and mechanical behaviour of this material. This study concerned the earth extracted from the Nador site. After having identified this earth on the physico-chemical level by standardized laboratory tests and examined its behaviour with water, our study on the extracted earth is carried on the thermo-physical and mechanical level. We have shown that the studied soil is a low plastic clay type and taking into account its thermal conductivity it can be classified as a low conductive material. Our study is also based on the state of the earth in the granular state and in the compact state to show that this clay in the compact state is more conductive than in the granular state. Another mechanical study allowed us to present the curve of the Proctor test in order to determine an optimum water content corresponding to the maximum compression which gives us the best quality of brick.